MAGA has a DEI policy. Just ask Nicki Minaj.
It's Been a Minute
NPR
4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
We're seeing quite a few examples in the culture that may suggest so: from Nicki Minaj's recent pivot to the MAGA right, to the videos of DHS agents of color making violent arrests, it feels like the far-right is making more space for people of color to find platforms and power. But how does a multicultural right-wing movement square with the politics of the President? Brittany is joined by Axios senior race and justice reporter Russell Contreras to understand the world of multiracial MAGA.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from Normal Gossip, a Radiotopia podcast. |
| 0:04.1 | Join host Rachel Hampton as she shares juicy, strange, funny, and utterly banal gossip |
| 0:10.2 | about people you'll never know and never meet. |
| 0:13.2 | Subscribe to Normal Gossip wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:16.6 | I think the path to whiteness has widened. |
| 0:20.2 | Where in the past, if you were a black conservative or Latino conservative, you could engage in conservative spaces, |
| 0:27.6 | but you were never accepted as fully white. |
| 0:30.6 | Now it's different. |
| 0:32.6 | Those structures are now allowing black people and Latinos to enter as long as they endorse certain ideas. |
| 0:40.8 | We've never had that phenomenon before. |
| 0:43.6 | Okay, y'all, I've been seeing a mix of different stories in the news that each seem unsettling on their own. |
| 0:48.9 | But I'm starting to put together the pieces, and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing. |
| 0:53.6 | Walk with me. First, we got Nikki Minaj's pivot to the right, and I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing what I'm seeing. Walk with me. |
| 0:55.6 | First, we got Nikki Minaj's pivot to the right, which has been long brewing, but sort of |
| 1:00.2 | crystallized in this moment where she joined Turning Point USA's Erica Kirk on stage for a special |
| 1:06.5 | dialogue. Nikki Minaj now refers to herself as President Trump's number one fan. And she's the |
| 1:12.7 | latest in a line of rappers who have moved from being Trump critical to openly admiring the president |
| 1:17.8 | and his policies. And if we turn to the matter of arrests and fatal confrontations involving |
| 1:23.1 | the Department of Homeland Security, let me throw some numbers at you. According to the Equal |
| 1:27.2 | Employment Opportunity Commission, as of August 2025, let me throw some numbers at you. According to the Equal Employment |
| 1:27.6 | Opportunity Commission, as of August 2025, about 23% of the overall DHS workforce identifies |
| 1:33.7 | as Hispanic or Latino. For Customs and Border Patrol, that number jumps to 50%. This may not |
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